With waste materials piling up in the U.S. and other global markets, the China recycling ban enacted on Jan. 1 is already making an impact. A couple of months have gone by and China has showed no sign of reversing their policy, even though the waste industry around the world has stated their frustrations with the ban. Some U.S. House members have even called on the Chinese government to repeal it.

But, why continue to spend time and energy fighting this ban when we could instead focus on handling it here at home and making the necessary changes to adapt to our new recycling reality? Investing in technology across all levels of the waste life cycle can help the U.S. more efficiently manage our waste and even reduce our waste generation before it lands in the dumpster, therefore decreasing contaminated recyclables.

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is a mantra that has been around for a while, yet the focus is typically associated with the recycling component more so than on reducing and reusing waste. While recycling makes companies and consumers feel good, the thought of reducing waste often evokes something akin to a fear response from the public, as people feel they have a right to consume at their discretion. However, the China recycling ban has made one thing clear: This approach is no longer reasonable or sustainable. Focusing on waste reduction may alleviate some of the issues we are currently seeing, and luckily, this is something that can be more easily achieved with the use of technology.

The future of the internet of things in waste

Today, there is a push to introduce new technology-enabled solutions into the waste industry as the internet of things (IoT) and connected devices allow visibility into processes we’ve never had access to before. New IoT-driven processes and technological advances will provide even more information to help better manage waste throughout the supply chain through the use of data to identify where reduction can occur and where action needs to be taken to help make waste and recycling programs more effective.

This type of visibility is critical in the wake of the China ban, making it easier to pinpoint exactly where the majority of waste is coming from, at what stage it is being generated most, and where it is getting contaminated. IoT devices allow waste services providers to identify changes in volume down to the specific site or facility level. By continuously monitoring and analyzing waste in all phases of its life cycle—from the dumpster to the truck to the waste facility—waste services partners can offer actionable insights to their clients, enabling them to make data-driven decisions to reduce the amount of waste at the source.

Technology in dumpsters

The ability to control what will ultimately be put in a landfill or recycling center starts at the dumpster. Waste services providers can leverage the IoT capabilities of container sensors to consistently monitor waste volumes coming out of a site. This data allows them to offer their customers clarity and visibility around how much waste they’re producing. This means that waste generators now can know how full a dumpster is, what its contents are, how quickly it became full, how often it needs to be collected, and most importantly, actionable insights on what the facility can do to reduce its waste.

By analyzing the data from container sensors, identifying patterns of activity and auditing waste streams, these connected devices allowwaste services providers to uncover what causes changes in volume and to understand where in the supply chain the materials come from. With this information, facilities can make changes to ultimately help with the goal of reducing waste.

Further, waste services providers using dumpsters that are integrated with IoT sensors can help to discover if a facility is accurately following recycling regulations. If a site is placing recyclables in their dumpster or vice versa, waste services providers can lay out a simplified and easy-to-follow recycling program specific to the site’s county and city regulations to increase recycling accuracy and efficiency. This will decrease contaminated recycling batches as well as increase the volume of clean, sorted recycling, which is an overall win-win.

Technology in vehicles

After the waste and recycling materials get placed in the dumpster, technology in the hauler truck can continue the process of ensuring loads are not contaminated.

Some waste collection trucks are using cameras to take pictures of contaminated loads so that the haulers can send notices—and even fines—to end customers not adhering to recycling standards. This puts even more accountability on the waste generators.

Additionally, by being able to check if a load is contaminated before it reaches the recycling center, haulers will gain the added efficiency of knowing to place those collections in the appropriate location at a sorting facility, instead of with the other recyclables.

Technology in waste facilities

This same type of technology can be instituted at recycling and waste facilities to help better control contamination.

At these facilities, the use of robotic sorting technology is advancing. While still a major investment, robotic technology has been proven to sort materials faster and more accurately than humans can. Robotic sorters use deep learning technology to see the material, artificial intelligence to identify the item and, finally, a robotic arm to pick up specific pieces of waste. With recyclables, it’s critical to separate paper from plastic from aluminum, and these robotic workers can speed up and streamline this process while also ensuring accuracy is maintained.

Implementing and investing in technology at all levels and phases of the trash life cycle will help this objective and bring added clarity into the composition of waste that generators are producing.

Focus on the positive impact

China’s ban may have disrupted the status quo of the global waste industry, but this ban has just as much to do with what is going on oversees as it does in our communities in the U.S. These new regulations have placed the responsibility of recycling back into our hands.

While few industry stakeholders would likely classify the ban as a good thing, it has presented an opportunity to rethink and refocus on the systems and methods that are currently used in our industry. The question now becomes, “Can we use it as a reason to implement positive, waste-reducing methods that will have a lasting impact?” It’s up to us in the waste industry to inform, educate and enforce accurate recycling and reduction waste provisions that can answer this question in the affirmative.

Christy Hurlburt is vice president of marketing for Enevo, a waste services provider within the retail, restaurant and multifamily industries with U.S. headquarters in Boston.

EPA removes Pennsylvania C&D recycling site from National Priorities List

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Washington, has removed a construction and demolition (C&D) recycling site in Foster Township, Pennsylvania, from the Superfund National Priorities List.

The 110-acre site was used to reclaim metals, including copper and lead, from cable wires from 1963 until 1984. Cable burning and processing materials at the site caused contamination of the surrounding soil and sediment that posed a risk to human health and the environment.

The cleanup included the stabilization and off-site disposal of contaminated soil and sediment by Nassau Metals Corp., New Providence, New Jersey. Approximately 80,000 tons, or 4,000 truckloads, of stabilized soil and sediment were removed from the site during the remediation.

EPA conducted oversight of the remediation work by Nassau Metals and has determined the site no longer poses a threat to human health or the environment.

The National Priorities List is a roster of the nation’s most contaminated sites that threaten human health or the environment. The sites on the list are eligible for cleanup under EPA’s Superfund program. EPA removes sites from the list once all the remedies are successfully implemented and no further cleanup is required to protect human health or the environment.

“Superfund cleanup and safe reuse of the site continues to be a priority at EPA as we work to create a safer and healthier environment for all communities affected,” Cosmo Servidio, EPA Mid-Atlantic regional administrator, says. “Removing this site from the list represents an important step toward achieving this goal.”

EPA did not receive any adverse comments during the 30-day public comment period on the proposal to delist.

Postconsumer plastic scrap has been a primary target of the import bans China has introduced this year. Additionally, import licenses for plastic scrap have been harder to come by, while import quotas have been reduced.

Panelists during the second plenary session, China’s Impact – The Ban and Beyond, during Plastics Recycling 2018 discussed the impact of China’s actions on the plastics recycling industry. The event, organized by Resource Recycling, was Feb. 19-21 in Nashville, Tennessee.

“China is completely off the table,” said Hamilton Wen, director of California-based Newport CH International’s plastics division. As a result, the company’s plastics brokerage business has experienced a “complete upheaval,” he added.

While Newport CH is looking at other markets worldwide, sales come down to quality, he said. “It is no longer a seller’s market. Now it is who has the best material.”

Pablo Leon, Asia manager for the Spanish company Fosimpe SL, with operations in Shanghai, said China’s actions should not have come as a surprise. “The bans have been rumored for some time.”

However, Leon added that he believed that China has gone too far with its actions.

Brent Bell, vice president of recycling for Waste Management, Houston, said that 30 percent of the tons the company processes are exported, with the primary destination historically having been China.

In response to China’s actions, the company has developed alternative markets in India, Southeast Asia and even the U.S. for the nearly 30 percent of its tonnage that was previously shipped primarily to China, he said.

Wen said Southeast Asia offered a tenuous alternative to shipping to China, however, citing problems at the ports in the region related to the “sheer amount of volume” being shipped. Additionally, he said he felt it was only a matter of time before these countries started to enact laws and procedures similar to those China has adopted.

Dylan de Thomas, vice president of industry collaboration with The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia, agreed, saying, “Other countries are looking to China for what they want to do in the future.”

He added,” I’m bullish on domestic capacity, personally.”

De Thomas and Bell agreed that educating residents on what is and is not acceptable for recycling is an important factor, as it affects the degree of inbound material contamination material recovery facilities (MRFs) experience.

Bell said contamination rates of 0.5 percent, as China has specified for incoming plastic scrap shipments, will be difficult to achieve with 15 percent inbound contamination rates at MRFs.

Reducing contamination at the MRF hinges on resident education, which Bell said was a “hard exercise to go through” and that there are no “silver bullets” that can apply in all situations.

As a MRF operator, Bell said, it is important for WM to talk with the communities it serves to see if they still want their recycling programs to include recyclables that may have limited demand and value.

The changes in China’s policies toward imported scrap have created real challenges for municipal programs, de Thomas said, with communities re-evaluating the materials their recycling programs accept.

While he said improving quality was a “big part” of the answer to the questions posed by China’s recent actions, demand for recycled plastics also must increase.

Bell agreed, saying, “We need demand to exist to make the recycling system work.”

To that end, WM is talking with companies about including recycled content in their products, he said.

While Bell said he supports China’s effort to clean up its environment and have the material quality the country’s consuming companies deserve, he would have liked to have seen a longer time frame for implementation of the government’s changes to import policies.

Leon said he felt the Chinese government “may have gone too far,” adding that “all the plastics they were receiving were not junk.”

“There will be markets for low-grade plastics,” Wen said. “They will take time to develop.”

He continued, “This material has value. It will get recycled somewhere.”

Nine Dragons reports half-year sales and profit increases

Hong Kong-based Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Ltd. has announced its unaudited results for the six-month period ending Dec. 31, 2017. The company reports a sales increase of 34 percent to $4 billion in the half year, and gross profits that rose by 80 percent compared to the second half of 2016. Nine Dragons also indicates its profit margin rose from 18.3 percent in late 2016 to 24.5 percent in late 207.

In its management discussion and analysis, the firm’s executives say they have developed strategies to cope with the Chinese government’s recovered fiber import restrictions.

The analysis authors write, “As government environmental policy becomes more determined and stringent, and environmental enforcement becomes more extensive and rigorous, [the] group has adopted a proactive strategy to achieve the appropriate balance between selling prices, sales volume and inventory levels for optimal profitability, and has recorded historical high sales revenue and profits during the period.”

In describing its strategy, Nine Dragons’ managers write, “Although the import of recovered paper into China has become more restrictive, the group is still able to maintain a flexible procurement strategy that is based on the selection and purchase of raw materials offering the most optimal cost-value relationship by closely monitoring the market price trends of different sources. The purchase value of domestic recovered paper accounted for approximately 57.3 percent of the total value of the group’s purchase of recovered paper in the period.”

In the outlook section of its analysis, the company’s managers portray Nine Dragons as a firm that can benefit from paper mill capacity cuts in China and also hints that the scrap import restrictions may yet pose problems.

“Noncompliant capacities in the packaging paperboard industry will continue to be shut down,” write the company’s managers. “New capacities of Nine Dragons Paper will offer more high-quality products to replace low-quality products in the market. Nevertheless, new capacities are expected to emerge during certain periods and imported raw materials will also be tightened, representing challenges to be met by the group.”

Projecting optimism, the managers add, “Nine Dragons Paper will adopt an effective strategy to adjust for changing supply-demand dynamics in the market, and enhance upstream and downstream integration along the supply chain in order to create the optimal synergy for the best shareholders’ value in the long term.”

Aluminum prices in late February 2018 drifted slightly downward but remain within sight of a six-year London Metal Exchange (LME) high of $2,290.50 reached in January 2018.

A J.P. Morgan analysis, however, notes that Shanghai Futures Exchange (AHFE) aluminum inventories “continue to surge over the last six months, increasing by some 90 percent.” This has caused the premium of SHFE to LME aluminum to shrink to only $73 per metric ton versus the five-year average of $305 per metric ton.

J.P. Morgan also notes, “There are some concerns as to what would happen to Chinese aluminum exports in the event that the United States enacts import duties or quotas on aluminum imports and whether the Chinese exports would go to other markets.”

A Commerzbank analysis, meanwhile, observes, “One can only hope that the Chinese government’s months of fighting ‘illegal’ aluminum smelters will lastingly eliminate the oversupply and generate greater transparency.”

The same analysis also states, however, that despite winter anti-pollution efforts in China that mandated aluminum smelter cutbacks, “Nonetheless, the latest trade figures show that exports of aluminum products [from China] in December 2017 and January 2018 exceeded 390,000 net metric tons in each month, despite the reduction in output. This points to ample supply on the aluminum market.”

Copper began the last week in February with a price rise, as higher imports to China and strong economic data cemented expectations of solid demand from the world’s biggest metal consumer. Three-month copper on the LME closed up 0.2 percent at $7,110 per metric ton, not far from a four-year high of $7,312 achieved the prior month. The red metal struggled later in the same week, as did zinc.

Chinese imports of scrap metal, meanwhile, fell to the lowest level in nearly two years in January 2018, after restrictions were introduced. Copper scrap imports were down 28 percent year on year. The price of copper in China surged in late 2017 on expectations that lower scrap imports to China would increase demand for refined metal.

In the steel sector in China, the municipality of Tangshan has proposed a plan to require local steel mills to lower their production rates by 10 to 15 percent even after the winter cuts are lifted. This could be a positive for global steel prices and for high-grade iron ore producers.